


Seconds

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, not back peeps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24643423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Any Pairing : stolen glances, and caught. Asked by waknatious forever ago via tumblrEmma could only nod, her hand lax, her muscles flexing beneath her skin, that on itself burning as Regina’s magic recoiled once more, the noise from outside their booth dying once more as Regina kept on with the lessons, one brow raised, edge of her lips curved.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	Seconds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [waknatious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/waknatious/gifts).



_Ra_ in was petering down the diner’s windows, creating silver-hued lines that splashed around while making shadows on the formica table beneath her fingertips, the resulting light of the white sky above them all dim and grey as it fell upon the entirety of the Enchanted Realms. She didn’t pay much mind to nothing of it, however, despite her eyes being trained on a slightly unfocused point of where the chocolate cup she had been holding up until a few minutes ago was resting; not with the way she could hear every other murmur of conversation rising and falling with the staccato of Regina’s voice enveloping it all.

Emma knew, or at least was vaguely aware, that the chocolate was getting steadily cold; the vague fog that had been present up until a few minutes ago -direct culprit of the slight sting that now occupied the back of her throat- now an almost invisible trickle that got lost amidst the raindrops that obscured the booth’s table. However, she felt much more moved by Regina’s description of the new magic book she had found on the back of her vault, the lessons reinstated the second the brunette had gotten a few weeks’ vacation from her duties as queen.

That had caused quite the stir. Emma smiled inwardly at the memory of her mother calling her as if expecting her to know more on the matter, more than what Regina had told them all in a briefing that had lasted less than a few minutes once the older woman had walked in with the crown safely secure between her hands. And, while Emma had suspected, she had said nothing; not exactly wanting to give a piece of information that wasn’t hers to give. Not when the frail thread of trust between herself and the brunette was slowly being rewoven by a constant need of seeing each other. She had, therefore, remained mute and waited for Snow to hung up to be the one calling Regina, asking, without asking, if she was ok. And the brunette’s response, holding that soft edge she had gotten ever since coming back from her own particular last curse, had been a burst of even softer laughter that had made Emma bit down her tongue on any follow-up questions.

Which had brought the same kind of silence when Emma had told her about the effectiveness of her divorce. The same distinct shield being built around her when Emma knew Snow had come to Regina, fishing for information that she had been unsure to share.

How could one admit the wrongness of their actions based on a tale that had been fed into the town’s hive mind regarding true love without guilting the ones who were at the very base of its foundation? It was preposterous and Emma had nodded her agreement to magic classes when the opportunity had been brought into the table; wanting to go out of the apartment that was now hers and solely hers. Out of the new monikers that had been thrust on her with the same force **savior** had once been.

Regina had understood. Of course she had. And now, thrice a week, they found each other seated at that same booth as Emma listened and Regina explained the theory behind every other hex, spell, word of power. Emma was still new to the theoretical applications; always preferring the rush magic gave her whenever it came to factual acts yet she had found herself eager to those meetings more and more as time passed, as the world around them didn’t implode as some had been quick to say once Regina’s decision had been passed to the ones not part of the council created to that effect.

The two of them needed to be something else, someone else, than what her titles implied, something closer to merely the names they had and Emma wondered, nor for the first time, if that was the major thing Regina seemed to miss from her time during the curse. The one she hadn’t gotten to live due to her own decisions.

She could feel the fingers of her right hand curling atop the table’s surface, the feeling of it against her nails, in the skin of her fingertips, shocking enough for her to blink back as Regina kept on explaining; her hands moving as sparks of purple and lilac followed her very movements as lines that run upwards her wrists, embedding themselves into the patch of skin already covered by her blouse’s sleeves.

It was captivating. Much more than what seemed to be for the others around them both who seemed unaffected by the way Regina’s eyes lighted up the second magic was mentioned, theory upon theory pouring out of her, like a constant stream Emma would gladly drink for as many more lessons she had the pleasure to have.

And that on itself was the problem, maybe. How utterly charmed she was by Regina, by the way her hands curled around her own cup of coffee -not finished but not as cold since the brunette kept on drawing runes around its rim-, by the way she tilted her head, the shadows of the diner’s light against her cheekbones created in the form of a graze Emma’s own fingers tingled to do themselves.

She stole yet another glance at the way the brunette’s shoulders sat; relaxed, at the way her body was also silhouetted on the table due to the light coming from both inside and outside, at the way her magic tinged the air for a few more seconds as the brunette splayed her fingers over the table, calm yet holding a very particular kind of force that made Emma swallow.

It had been difficult enough already when everything had seemed to be about saving the world: to keep her eyes, her mind, her own body, away from giving it away the heat of needing to constantly be in the presence of the other woman. Now, with Hope already well on her toddler-stage, without any ring on her fingers, securely away from what seemed to be a stagnant path of loss of friction, it felt even more difficult and the half-truths and absolute lies she been telling herself felt less compelling, less logical for her mind.

And she had merely needed a few magic lessons and the way Regina’s voice drowned every other noise for her to realize precisely that.

“Aren’t you going to finish that, dear?”

Regina’s question brought a splash of heat around her ears as Emma looked towards the brunette was pointing, namely her drink. Glancing up once more, taking notice of the line of the older woman’s lips, on the way wrinkles could be distinguished around her eyes, on the way curious mirth shadowed the brown of her irises, Emma realized she had been caught.

Red-handed, in fact, if the lazy line of Regina’s index finger created was any indication. The voice of the patrons around them getting progressively louder as Regina’s voice died down only for her to keep staring at her, Emma brought the cup up to her lips, tasting the residual sugar on its rim before she took the last swing at the drink. Thick and indeed cold, the beverage slid down her throat far too slowly as Regina kept on staring at her, silently.

It wasn’t until Emma lowered her cup that Regina narrowed her eyes, humor still on them, and nodded minutely before rising her hand, palm up, making purple lines that traveled through the space between them, crimping around Emma’s own wrist, bringing up the dirty white of her own magic as simple as breathing felt suddenly far too difficult for her to do.

“Much better, don’t you think?”

Emma could only nod, her hand lax, her muscles flexing beneath her skin, that on itself burning as Regina’s magic recoiled once more, the noise from outside their booth dying once more as Regina kept on with the lessons, one brow raised, edge of her lips curved.

Asking. Demanding. Wanting.

Outside, the rain stopped.


End file.
